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From: bpendlet@esunix.UUCP (Bob Pendleton)
Newsgroups: sci.space,sci.space.shuttle
Subject: Re: space news from Sept 12 AW&ST
Message-ID: <1091@esunix.UUCP>
Date: 16 Nov 88 18:26:57 GMT
References: <1988Nov14.214139.1892@utzoo.uucp>
Organization: Evans & Sutherland, Salt Lake City, Utah
Lines: 40

From article <1988Nov14.214139.1892@utzoo.uucp>, by henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer):
> In article <7594@dasys1.UUCP> tneff@dasys1.UUCP (Tom Neff) writes:

Tom Neff and Henry Spencer arguing over how much blame Thiokol
deserves over the Challenger disaster.

I hate to even sound like I'm defending Thiokol, but I know a number
of engineers, and some managers who work there. I know a few people
who quit in disgust over the whole mess too. Being active in AIAA can
put you in contact with a lot of interesting people.

Look at a little history. Thiokol has been building rocket motors for
years. Some of them (the booster motors for Delta for example) have a
100% success rate. Not one failure, ever. But then Thiokol got this
huge lucrative contract for SRMs. And Morton bought them out.

One of the first things that happened was that Morton moved all the
top level management from Utah, to some place back east. A thousand
miles or so from the engineers and middle management that built the
SRMs. The whole structure of the company changed. The top managers of
the company didn't know salt from SRMs, literally. The managers that
did understand rockets were no longer in contact with the people doing
the work.

After Challenger blew up and it didn't look like Thiokol was such a
nice cash cow, Morton started trying to sell it. They did move the
managers back to Utah.

Remember the name of the comany that won the SRM contract was THIOKOL.
The company that built the SRMs that blew up the Challenger was MORTON
(best known for salt, you know, "When it rains it pours") Thiokol. Not
the same thing at all.

Somebody made a lot of money out of all this. I think it was Morton.

			Bob P.
-- 
              Bob Pendleton, speaking only for myself.
UUCP Address:  decwrl!esunix!bpendlet or utah-cs!esunix!bpendlet

		Reality is what you make of it.